The purpose of Leadership in Motion Pictures blog is simple: To present and show you those unique motion pictures that not only entertain but show leaders in unique situations, how they deal with it and get themselves out of it.
WE WERE SOLDIERS
The second motion picture on my list is WE WERE SOLDIERS released in 2002 starring Mel Gibson as then LT COL Hal Moore and Sam Elliots as SGM Basil Plumley. Two career Army soldiers about to take one of the first group of Regular forces into the first major ground battle during the Vietnam War.
Most of the soldiers and officers of the 1st Battalion, 7 Cavalry Regiment, 1st Calvary Division had no combat experience but fully understood that Vietnam was NOT going to be a walk in the park. The movie does a great job of showing the innocence and fear in the eyes and faces of the men about to embark on a journey that many will not come back.
Before 7th Cavalry’s departure to Vietnam, the Battalion Commander, LTC Hal Moore does a lot of soul searching and tries to come up with all the answers he, his men, and their young families need to reassure everyone that what they are doing must be done.
Hal Moore, does this in a speech in front of those men and family members when he says that his will be “the first boots on the ground. The last one to leave.”
Once on the ground, in Vietnam, LTC Moore is true to his word. Even when ordered to leave the field of battle he refuses because of the promise he made to his men and his family. He continues the battle right along side his men from beginning to end in what was to become the “first major engagement between US and North Vietnam Army forces in Vietnam and showed the use of helicopters as mobility providers and assault support aircraft.”
In the end, LTC Hal and the 1st Battalion of the 7th Cavalry Regiment made it off the battlefield, though not at a 100% but he kept his promise of being the last man off the field.
WE WERE SOLDIERS directed by Randall Wallace stars Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear, Sam Elliott was released on March 1st 2002 and is available for streaming on the Amazon dot com Movie Streaming service, and for sale on DVD and BLUE RAY at AMAZON.com, BEST BUY and just about any place you can find DVDs and BLU RAY motion pictures.
TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH
The first motion picture to be reviewed is the 1949 classic TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH starring Gregory Peck as a US Army Air Corp General reluctantly given command of a bomber group based in England during World War II.
When the movie begins the bomber groups has suffered terrible losses and the commander seems to do nothing to get the bomber group’s confidence back. When all seems lost, the upper echelon wants change and that change has to happen now. The war cannot wait for the current commander to get his act together.
In comes the reluctant protagonist, Brigadier General Frank Savage, played by Gregory Peck. Savage starts by restoring law and order in an otherwise near chaotic bomber group. He begins by restoring order on the ground before even considering changes in the air.
There is resistance to the changes. No one likes his back to fundamentals approach. Sound familiar? However, with threats from the pilots and crew of quitting or transfers the General does not back down. Ultimately, the changes start to make sense for the 918th Bomber group and they start to jell.
The pilots, crew, and men of the Bomb group start to regain their confidence. While on bombing missions over Germany, Brigadier General Frank Savage is up there with the group. Leading them from the front on numerous missions including one that he had been working on since before he got the call to take command of the 918th.
Throughout the motion picture permeates the sense of battle fatigue, combat stress, post traumatic disorder, and just plain old “bad luck” as to why things are happening the way they do. War is never easy. When motion pictures stopped glamorizing war (such as those John Wayne type movies) then things could really be told. I understand some liberties have to be taken to dumb down war, men in war and the things that happen in war for the general public but the leadership message in Twelve O’Clock High is loud and clear all throughout the movie. The message is simple. The mission comes first.
In this case, the mission is to win the war. The men come second. Use them as best as they can be used to support the mission which will win the war. The mission, the men and women that perform the mission and the price the men, women and their machines pay to fight in a war is one thing that every leader must remember, whether fighting a war in some far off land or the battlefield that is in accounting department, and must be of the highest importance by their leader or leaders. Get everyone focused on the mission and hold them accountable to that mission, the rest will take care of itself just like General Frank Savage did in Twelve O’Clock High which is currently available for streaming on NETFLIX and on AMAZON dot com.
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